Poem by William Barnes

Third Collection. The Castle Ruins

A happy day at Whitsuntide,
 As soon’s the zun begun to vall,
We all stroll’d up the steep hill-zide
 To Meldon, girt an’ small;
Out where the castle wall stood high
A-mwoldrèn to the zunny sky.

An’ there wi’ Jenny took a stroll
 Her youngest sister, Poll, so gaÿ,
Bezide John Hind, ah! merry soul,
 An’ mid her wedlock faÿ;
An’ at our zides did plaÿ an’ run
My little maïd an’ smaller son.

Above the beäten mwold upsprung
 The driven doust, a-spreadèn light,
An’ on the new-leav’d thorn, a-hung,
 Wer wool a-quiv’rèn white;
An’ corn, a sheenèn bright, did bow,
On slopèn Meldon’s zunny brow.

There, down the rufless wall did glow
 The zun upon the grassy vloor,
An’ weakly-wandrèn winds did blow,
 Unhinder’d by a door;
An’ smokeless now avore the zun
Did stan’ the ivy-girded tun.

My bwoy did watch the daws’ bright wings
 A-flappèn vrom their ivy bow’rs;
My wife did watch my maïd’s light springs,
 Out here an’ there vor flow’rs;
And John did zee noo tow’rs, the pleäce
Vor him had only Polly’s feäce.

An’ there, of all that pried about
 The walls, I overlook’d em best,
An’ what o’ that? Why, I meäde out
 Noo mwore than all the rest:
That there war woonce the nest of zome
That wer a-gone avore we come.

When woonce above the tun the smoke
 Did wreathy blue among the trees,
An’ down below, the livèn vo’k,
 Did tweil as brisk as bees;
Or zit wi’ weary knees, the while
The sky wer lightless to their tweil.

1. Second Collection. The Linden on the Lawn
2. Second Collection. When Birds be Still
3. First Collection. Summer. Week’s End in Zummer, in the Wold Vo’k’s Time
4. Second Collection. I know Who
5. Third Collection. Went vrom Hwome

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